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All’s Quiet
By Dorothy MacFarlane
Posted Tuesday, October 30, 2007
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It’s been very quiet on the old farm lately. Summer is winding down, and fall is starting up. The young hawks haven’t been around for a while, and even the insects have stopped singing. I haven’t seen many animals going by, no foxes, skunks, or coyotes, but I know they are there. It is the same with deer; you have to be in the right place at the right time to see them. Or maybe it is not the right place. Deer are easily startled, and can be quite dangerous.
My sister was leaving my house around 10:00 pm the other evening, and as she drove away, a deer leapt across the driveway, right in front of her! She had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting it. Needless to say this was a near miss, and it scared her. There are a lot of deer on and near the farm, and I have seen them leaping across Wapping Road. It is a wonder that no one has hit one yet.
I did see a red fox in Hingham recently. I was driving on a back road, when I saw something orange trotting down the side of the street. It was small and scrawny, and at first I thought it was a cat. As it got closer, I saw that it was a very sick fox. It was thin, dirty, and its fur was all matted. It seemed to have a destination, as it turned into a driveway and trotted on. It was daytime, unusual for a fox to be so public. It may have been rabid or poisoned, or sick from something else. I stopped my car to look at it, but it disappeared into the woods. A sick fox probably won’t last very long this time of year. It has no fat for insulation and no reserves for when food is harder to get.
If this fox is lucky, it will get well soon, but nature has a way of removing weak or surplus plants and animals. Not with any malice, but with the luck of the draw. It is the same with the dead oaks and other trees. The weakest have been pruned out. Stronger trees will survive, and those with the ability to fight against insects and drought. Seedlings will soon sprout to take the place of dead trees. Nature is nothing if not balance.
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All’s Quiet[Oct. 30, 2007] It’s been very quiet on the old farm lately. Summer is winding down, and fall is starting up. The young hawks haven’t been around for a while, and even the insects have stopped singing. I haven’t seen many animals going by, no foxes, skunks, or coyotes, but I know they are there. It is the same with deer; you have to be in the right place at the right time to see them. Or maybe it is not the right place. Deer are easily startled, and can be quite dangerous.
The Dry Summer...[Sep. 28, 2007] I've been through dry summers before, but I have never seen so many mature trees in trouble. Swamp maples, sugar maples, dogwoods, and birches have all started to dry up and drop their leaves. Some of them are turning intensely red or yellow first, but this is not normal fall color; this is a tree is severe distress. It is quite possible that some of these trees will not leaf out next year.
Woodchucks...[Aug. 27, 2007] Did you know woodchucks can climb trees? I know they can, because I saw one coming down out of my mulberry tree! There is a bumper crop of the little devils this year, and they eat everything, including my marigolds. The quantity of food available might be why the hawks raised two babies this year, a male and a female.
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